Lost Soles of Jungle River! is the 14th episode of season two of Scooby-Doo and guess Who? and originally aired on July 25th, 2020 on Boomerang. With a Story by Michael Ryan and a Teleplay by Benjamin Townsend, this episode sees the gang in the Amazon Jungles with guest star Jason Sudeikis, searching for a lost sneaker factory and terrorized by a mythical Snake Man.
Lost Soles of Jungle River! – Episode Review
The episode begins with Jason Sudeikis writing in his diary as sits in a boat that slowly makes its way down the Amazon River. In his diary, he explains that he is working with Mystery Inc to locate a certain treasure. Before we can figure out what the treasure is, a snake monster crashes into the room.
We then flash back to the gang shopping at a pop-up sneaker store where they meet Jason Sudeikis. They also find a treasure map which shows where the lost sneaker factory of La Pesadilla is. This was the first sneaker factory ever and contains rare and valuable sneakers, including the first sneakers ever made.
Acquiring a barge, the gang load up the Mystery Machine while Jason brings along his travel collection of his sneakers. Both parties wonder why either of them would bring a van or a whole pile of sneakers. We are then treated to a day by day journey and slowly watch Fred, Shaggy and Scooby grow out their beards.
The ship captain also explains the snake monster to the group, calling him El Hombre Serpiente.
Eventually we cut back to where we started, and that is with Jason Sudeikis being attacked by the snake-man. Jason calls this choice of narration a “wibbly wobbly page turny flashbacky thing”. After a couple of scuffles with the snake creature, the entire ship is set on fire and the gang quickly leave by way of the Mystery Machine. Unfortunately, the travelling is slow as the gang progress through the thick jungle by driving the Mystery Machine cautiously across rickety bridges, down bumpy roads and further down the river on a raft made out of logs.
Eventually they find their way to the lost factory and discover a vat of rubber which is made from local rubber trees. They also find clues like a warm coffee and a rubber footprint on their journey, as well as a huge pit like crater in the factory that prevents them from going in any further. This is unfortunate as all the rare sneakers lie just across the pit.
The snake monster appears once again and Jason has the smart idea of coating his shoes with rubber from the vat of rubber. With this, he is able to bounce across the pit while also saving Shaggy and Scooby from being chopped up by the factory machinery as they were stuck to a conveyer belt after playing with some rubber themselves.
In this process, Freddy trips the snake-man, where the creature falls into a pit and is knocked further down by dozens of crates. Velma uses a crane to snag the creature while Freddy unmasks the mythical monster, only to reveal it was the shoe store clerk who was helping them at the shoe store. The clerk was also a rare shoe collector and wanted the shoes for herself.
My Review
I give this episode an 8 out of 10. This episode was a lot of fun and the Snake Creature looked great!
I quite enjoyed Jason as a guest and the sneaker plot was quite clever and fun. I have to admit I may have been rather critical about the art of this series in that it has never really appealed to me, when compared to Scooby-Doo Where Are You or the Scooby-Doo Show. However, when you look at individual screens, the art is quite magnificent in this episode. Shots of the city, images of the Mystery Machine overlaid on maps or floating down a raft all look so cool. I haven’t included many of these types of shots in my review, so you’ll just have to watch this one to see what I’m talking about.
Anyway, I’ve always kind have written off this series as it wasn’t “My Generation’s Scooby-Doo”, but after reviewing this one, I am excited to watch more.